The Harp of Erin :: :: University of Virginia Library

Ah me! full long shall arts and arms decay,
And modest worth in lonely desert pine;
Full long shall Penury, with iron sway,
The noblest darings of the soul confine,
And freeze the genial glow of verse divine.
But yet, sweet mourners of the tuneful train,
A future age shall in your praise combine;
Your fame, your matchless fame, shall still remain,
And rising nations swell the high immortal strain

139

Down a deep dell the sly enchaunter led,
Through dol'rous lanes and sad, the redcross knight;
To where thick yews disclose, inflicting dread,
A cave unconscious of the noon-day light.
This place the Cave of Ignorance is hight;
Where he, the wizard wild, doth aye rejoice
To mar the golden treasures of the muse,
And scatter to the winds each lofty voice:
Ne doth he e'er the glorious page peruse,
But with his blackest gall doth fairest works abuse.

A feeble lamp-light aids his winking eye,
While he on crude Bavarian volume pores;
Or strives in Excellence a spot to spy,
That he might vilify her precious stores.
And ever and anon he loudly roars,
When he doth see a model passing rare
That mocks all malice; which the carl explores,
And makes each wrong as empty as the air:
But hard, I ween, it is, to taint the truly fair.

Beneath his stool unnumber'd authors lie,
For there he casts each gently flowing song;
And doth to each a reading fair deny,
But still continueth to work them wrong.

140

Here droops dan Virgil under durance strong,
And Milton here doth Satan praise no more;
Sweet Mulla's modest bard his descant long
Doth cast aside of legendary lore,
And views his fairy web perdye to pieces tore.

Full many a demon urges, on his side,
To spoil the commonweal of youthful Taste.
Malice, with blinking eye; fantastic pride;
Folly, in mockery on a throne yplac'd;
Revenge, by troops of rav'nous bloodhounds chas'd;
With frontless visage, brazen Impudence;
Blind Zeal, with ribs of ruthless iron lac'd,
Antique, misshapen wight, with dark pretence;
And thousands more; attack the sovreignty of Sense.

Soon as the redcross knight those imps espy'd,
He sought some way to 'scape their baneful snare;
But strait a voice in thunder harsh reply'd:
“Beware, bold knight; of jeopardy beware.
If aught, disdainful of our word, thou dare,
Plung'd in yon dungeon ages shalt thou lie;
Where embryo Shades, and half-form'd Centaurs, tear
The rankled flesh; where heaves th' eternal sigh:
A giant guards the den, his name Uncertainty.”

141

So spoke the wrathful keeper of the gate;
Contention hight, yclad in prickly arms;
A crown of thistles wreath'd his noisy pate;
Stillettoes guard his sides, prepar'd for harms:
And a hoarse bugle sounds his rough alarms.
A wight he was right fond of obloquy:
In Scorn, fell dame, he saw resistless charms,
And lov'd the proud demeanor of her eye:
To his embrace she bore the fiend Contumacy.

Soon as the master of this gloomy cave
The voice o'erheard of that same troublous wight,
He cry'd with wily words: “Audacious slave,
Why thus contemptuous speak to noblest knight
That ever blessed my happy nation's sight?
Caitiff, avaunt; or by this spell I swear,
Thy tortur'd soul shall feel, with wild affright,
The ceaseless horrors of continual fear:
The whips of pale Remorse, the stings of fell Despair.

But thou so courteous knight, come hither, share
The various dainties that my court affords:
Here spend thy frolic hours, devoid of care,
With courtly damsels and with gallant lords.

142

Let earth-born misers pile their golden hoards,
Here, senseless of the spring, thy thirst assuage:
No mountains stop thy course, nor dang'rous fords;
To blessed Ignorance thy life engage,
Nor wish to read futurity's ill-omen'd page.

“Lo! here no country claims thy strict regard,
And cheats thy manly eye with infant bell:
No sage will pester here, nor servile bard;
No friends will hunt thee in this mazy dell.
Then bid old fame, and honours all, farewell.
What man would wish the rugged mount to climb,
When in the vale more fragrant zephyrs dwell?
Or who would tempt the arduous lay sublime,
When Ease here idly sings, and consecrates her rhime?

“Give o'er thy quest of virtue. If on earth
She deigns to live, her residence is here:
This spot of holy concord gave her birth;
Where zeal aye nurs'd the child, without a fear
That could her peace with harsh annoyance scare.
In conscious fortitude the virgin see;
Her port majestic, her excelling air,
She moves in haughty stalk of dignity:
On earth fair virtue hight, but here Temerity.”

143

Right wrathful waxed then the redcross knight;
And knew th' enchaunter, speaking though so mild:
His hairs stood bristling up in fierce affright;
His looks grew wan and red, and staring wild;
And oft he foam'd with rage, and often smil'd.
At length, quick-rising with chivalrous ire,
He sought to draw his glaive with gore defil'd;
But (marvellous to tell!) as forged by fire,
It wreathed round his feet, with semblance unto wire.

O mortal hopes, and mortal fears, how vain!
Thus when some lozel heir, from riches sprung,
Proud as sir Paradel of gaudy train,
Doth nothing mind but nimbleness of tongue,
And squandering jewels on a heap of dung,
Debts grow on debts, on legers legers rise;
The banker looks his learned books among,
The younker's chearisaunce with spite he spies,
And traps the helpless wight who sad in durance lies.